Get Android 2.2 'Froyo' for HTC Hero: A guide

I waited ages for the Android 2.1 Eclair update to come to the HTC Hero. I was sick of Legend and Desire owners lording it over my ancient Android, and wired.co.uk News Editor and Nexus One owner Duncan was a proud 2.2 user before I even had a whiff of an upgrade.

When the update finally arrived I was… disappointed. I had access to fancy new functions like turn-by-turn navigation and new apps such as Gesture Search, but all in all the operating system was a bit of a dog. My Hero was significantly slower, and typing messages had become a chore on the newly laggy keypad.

After some hairy experiences in the past, I'd avoided the rooting route. No longer. I came across a site that would let me put Android 2.2 -- Froyo -- on my trusty Hero. It was time to gain superuser control.

The ROM in question is FroydVillain, from the VillainROM team. It's a stock Froyo build, so no HTC Sense. There's a clear installation process on the VillainROM wiki, but I've broken the process down below. It takes about an hour on an Orange or unbranded Hero, but is more complicated for other carriers -- if you're on T-Mobile or Three you'll need to follow the 'Goldcard' method on the wiki. A word of warning -- rooting can brick your phone, but this is rare.

1. Back up your phone and SD card, as both will be wiped. Downgrade your phone's software to the appropriate exploitable version, as shown on the wiki. You'll need HTC Sync. HTC wouldn’t let me download an earlier firmware version for my phone, so I grabbed it from here.

2. Enable installation of apps from outside the Android Market by going into Settings -- Applications and ticking Unknown Source. Now download and install the free Astro File Manager from the Android Market.

3. It's now time to install a custom Recovery Image, which lets you install custom ROMs. Download FlashRec.apk and AmonRA's Hero Recovery Image from the links on the wiki. Copy both files to your phone's SD card over USB. Unplug the phone from your computer, open Astro File Manager and run FlashRec.apk. Follow the instructions in the app to install the recovery image.

4. Download FroydVillain. Copy the file to your SD card. Unplug your phone and turn it off. Turn on your Hero by holding down both the power and home buttons -- this will trigger the recovery menu. Select Wipe, and wipe the first item in the list. You'll need to repeat for every item in the Wipe list to clear your phone completely.

5. Now select Flash zip from SDcard and select the FroydVillain ROM you downloaded. It will install -- be patient, and don’t touch your phone until it's done. Now reboot into your new Android 2.2 operating system -- the first boot takes a while and will have a blank screen for around 30 seconds, so don’t panic.

I found the new OS far faster than the official 2.1 ROM. The stock Android keyboard is more responsive than HTC's Sense version, but you can't hold down the keys for punctuation marks. Apart from that, it's pretty much perfect. I love my Hero once more.

Edited by Olivia Solon

Comments

Hi Chris. I am new to software upgrades and I'm very afraid to brick my precious phone. Do you know if I can upgrade to, lets say an European version of the rom to have access to other locales I currently don't have in my carrier unlocked phone?

Man

Jul 31st 2010

Pass. I'm happy enough with official 2.1.

It says my camcorder function won't work if i install this.

I'm not prepared to loose that.

I'll wait for one where everything works.

idroid

Aug 2nd 2010

I don't know, FroyoVillain seems a bit unfinished for my uses. The camera doesn't really work properly; nor do the LEDs and trackball notifications. Happily, the Hero will be officially supported by Cyanogen for version 6, the nightly builds of which FroyoVillain is based on. Hopefully Cyanogen will get all the Hero hardware working correctly when CM6 is properly released.

For now I'm using the Cyanogen for Hero port (from XDA), which is a 2.1 ROM. It's both fast *and* stable.

Richard

Aug 3rd 2010

Hi Man - I don't know, to be honest. I would have thought it would work for any GSM Hero, but I'd definitely double-check with the villainrom community - post a message on the boards at villainrom.co.uk.

David Rowan

Aug 3rd 2010

Hey, what about ADP1 and HTC Magic (unbranded)? In my lab we have one of each, stuck at 1.6, would have liked to try them out on 2.2...

Anders Sundnes Løvlie

Aug 4th 2010

For me, I found the builds of FroydVillain to be quite slick. With each update comes new functions that are slicker and better than before. FroydVillain has the very same Devs who came out with VillainRom 12 2.1 for the hero. In them we trust.

stoney

Aug 6th 2010

If you want the HTC Keyboard without the lag try adding HTC_IME mod. Shouldn't be hard to install and you'll find it on XDA developers. You want the low resolution 2.2 version. :)

BtDaG

Aug 6th 2010

Dude! On the very same site (hero.villainrom.co.uk) you will find a guide to root your phone when upgraded to official 2.1-android. You will have to use the ADB-tool from Android-SDK but it isn't that hard to use.

MljjlM

Aug 7th 2010

Hi All, I would just like flash player for my HTC Magic (Vodafone) does anyone have any suggestions?

Paul Hibbert

Aug 10th 2010

I've recently done this and find the villainROM stuff pretty great, the only drawback is that my clock on the phone now won't stay correct, whether i have it using network provided values or not it always jumps forward about half an hour to 45 mins. This is only a small problem but is enough of an inconvinience that i'm going to have to revert back to the 2.1 update through fear of being early to everything and never knowing the time! Anybody else had this problem or know of a possible fix?

you should probably state what phones are supported and what phones are not correct me if im wrong, but from what i understand my phone cdma hero is not supported.

cdma hero

Sep 12th 2010

Ok. Sounds great. However I need you to explain and be very specific what works and what doesn't. And how to fix what doesn't. This would be very helpful. I'm on Alltel so I don't know if I'm branded or unbranded please reply to me I would really like to do this. However if i mess up....... .

Logan

Oct 3rd 2010

does this work on the hero cdma (sprint hero)?

hero cdma

Oct 6th 2010

For those asking lots of questions about if my phone supports it .... what works and what doesn't.... it can all be found here

www.google.co.uk

try something like "your phone make and model" supported on adroid 2.2